The day consisted of the viewing of the film and Q&A autograph session afterwards.

Oh, and a one-on-one with the 7-time WWE champion herself about the film earlier in the day.

I’d like to thank professional photographer Bob Mulrenin for the use of his photographs. For those keeping score, you can check out his work on sites like www.wrestlingfigs.com.

Enjoy:

MMA Crossfire: So what was it like working with your co-stars?

Trish Stratus: Boomer Phillips was just hilarious – comedy gold every minute of the day. We were shooting night scenes. Have you seen the movie?

MMA Crossfire: I haven’t.

Trish Stratus: Well, you’ll see it tonight, yay!

MMA Crossfire: (laughs).

Trish Stratus: So it takes place mostly in the evening and it’s dark and so we were shooting at night. We get tired and it’s a long night and stuff but Boomer Phillips was awesome. We just had that chemistry where we would just riff and go off and [director] PatrickMcBrearty would go “Ok, you two settle down.” (laughs). Thankfully, some of this comedy that you’ll see in the film made the cut. Initially Patrick set out to just make an action flick between Boomer and I. He said the comedy we gave him, turned the film into an action comedy. He got to sort of decide he was going to go that way with the film. And my other co-star Frank (Frank J. Zupancic)was great. He’s kind of a veteran actor, so for me to come into this new environment, it was great to have someone like him to kind of guide me along and give me the heads up. Someone who you can go, “So was that right?” It’s a new environment, so getting the etiquette and things like that. So Frank was great like that.

My fighting soul sister was Andrea James Lui. I really feel we created something special in our scenes. We took the time to – like we do in WWE – create a moment between us and I think we did –create several moments in the film.

MMA Crossfire: Talk about the fight scene with Andrea in the ambulance.

Trish Stratus: Initially, I decided to come on board in a producing role because I wanted to take the opportunity to preserve the integrity of these fight scenes. Obviously coming from my background I know how important it is. Yes, I’m a control freak (laughs), but it was a good opportunity to showcase what we do in the wrestling world. So I met with Andrea and initially we approached it like traditional moviemaking. And coming from the WWE background I was like, “So what do you know about ‘contact’?” (laughs). She was really cool because number one she’s a stuntperson and number two she’s a martial artist. So Patrick said to us and he kind of told everybody with a script, he said “Use creative freedom, whatever you feel just go with it,” on the script side of things. So with the fight scenes he said the same thing. So we approached these scenes not as stuntpeople but as fighters. So she knows what it feels like to be punched in the face and I know what it feels like and I know kick someone in the head and so does she so I guess that’s what kind of let us bring that realism to the scene. We got together a couple of months before the actual shooting happened and trained together and developed that trust factor and that chemistry which I think is so important which I’ve seen in the WWE. When you have that chemistry with someone, you’re unstoppable. We decided “no boundaries” and we went all-in, 110% and I do believe we created something special.

MMA Crossfire: You mentioned you were a control freak…

Trish Stratus: (laughs)

MMA Crossfire: You had your producer and choreographer’s hat for the film. What was that like?

Trish Stratus: Initially the fight-coordinator who was on set gave each of the characters their own fight style which was kind of neat. He really wanted to preserve the integrity of everyone’s style. It’s just like the WWE where Jazz does this and I do this so when the two styles clash it makes this unique thing. I think we did the same thing with the fight scenes that he had in the movie. Coming on board, I’m definitely aware of my audience and I thought, ‘Well, there’s got to be a little Trish Stratus in here.’ As much as Jules Taylor trained in Krav Maga, there’s a little Trish in there as well as a shoutout to my fans. And I know for sure at Actionfestwhen it was viewed there, actually it’s about a year ago, last April, the fans were appreciative of that moment It was a little shoutout (laughs). You know when The Rock does a kip-up in one of his movies. As a fan, you appreciate that, so that was cool.

After seeing Ironman and watching Scarlett Johansson do her karate thing and everyone was going nuts for that. I was thinking, “Well we do that every week in wrestling!” (laughs). So I thought that this would be a good chance to showcase that side of things and bring the Lucha style to mainstream. I think we shocked the movie peeps a bit because we showed up on set and they’re like “Don’t you guys need to get together?” We’re like, “This is what we do.” It’s amazing the tools we gained as wrestlers and performers. We literally showed up, we looked around, checked out our environment. There’s a bench , there’s something hanging up over there, we’ll use all of that. What do you do? Let’s do this, and we did it in one take and they’re like “Oh my gosh, you just make that up?” and we’re like “Um hmm. It’s what we do.” So its kind of neat and I think we impressed the movie people.

MMA Crossfire: And you have another project (Doctor Doom Versus the Wrestling Women) going with Amy Dumas (Lita in the WWE).

Trish Stratus: Amy and I have been talking about this project for a while. I think we’ve talked about it before too. We loosely back in the day when we were wrestling kind of were like, “That would be cool, doing an actual remake.” And after doing this movie, I remember calling Amy and saying, “No we really need to do this because we can.” In speaking to other people, there are some interested parties now, just being in the industry I guess peaked the interest a little bit more. It made it feel like it was a project that was doable. So we’ve spoken about it a little more. I actually went to Nicaragua where she has a house and we did some brainstorming and thought, “Well, now that this project’s done I can think about the next project.” Because you know me Kenai, I can never have my plate empty (laughs). Another project’s done? Bring the next one in.

MMA Crossfire: What is your take on the current WWE product?

Trish Stratus: Well, it’s the same thing I’ve been saying for a while now: It’s just lacking the character development. With all the press I’ve been doing for Bounty Hunters the last few weeks, the number one question I’m getting is, “Can you believe what they’re doing with Nattie (Natalya Neidhart) and Eve?” I think it’s great actually because just the fact that I’m speaking about them and their angles is a great thing. It means something is happening. Something is better than nothing I would say. Listen, I was doing The Worm with Too Cool at one point. You never know..

MMA Crossfire: (laughs)

Trish Stratus: Yes, it was a good moment. You don’t have to pull that clip up at all. It wasn’t the best worm. I really should have done better, (laughs) but I think any moment on camera is a chance to connect with the fans (looks at her phone) actually she just texted me. She goes, “Thanks so much for your support,” I just said to her that it’s a chance for the audience to fall in love with you, make them want to see more for you. Let the audience want to see more Nattie, and more Eve. Hopefully everything is just a little more character development. Of course, she doesn’t want to be known as the farting girl. But who knows where that can go, right? I think its more exposure to the television audience, which allows them to connect more.

MMA Crossfire:Anchor Bay Entertainment is distributing the movie here in Canada. I work with Anchor Bay as they distribute a lot of the UFC product, what was it like having them on board?

Trish Stratus: They’ve been amazingly supportive. And it’s so key, it’s almost like every project I’ve done, I’ve been surrounded by a great team. Everyone from back in the day with my fitness stuff. The career that I had was because of my team. And with WWE, certainly it was Fit (Finlay) backstage, the writers, Brian (Gewirtz) with the support of Vince and Stephanie (McMahon), so it’s always been a team effort and it’s the same with this movie. Filming the movie, the cast, crew, amazingly supportive. I’m really excited to make this great project and it’s just a little project We had a shoestring budget, so to pull it all together and see what we’ve done because we’re all so passionate about it. And then for Anchor Bay to take us on and support this, the press, the media event for the fans. I think it’s been great and it makes a huge difference.

MMA Crossfire: It seems like your projects have a calculated philanthropic effect. For example using a Canadian production company for the movie.

Trish Stratus: I like to remember what brought you to the dance, so I’m super-supportive of any Canadian projects. I love my country and I’m very proud to be from here. It’s funny with the press that I’ve been doing, “Oh, what’s it’s like being back in Toronto?” I don’t think people realize that I am like born here, lived here, haven’t left you know, and I don’t plan on leaving so anytime I can support any Kenai – Canadian project – Kenai, I just said your name – (laughs). Anytime I can support a Canadian project is a great thing.

MMA Crossfire: (laughs).

Trish Stratus: You just got into my subliminal mind, wow!

MMA Crossfire: Yes, fancy that. (laughs)

Trish Stratus: Kenai tell you something? (laughs)

MMA Crossfire: (laughs). Do you still keep up with the UFC?

Trish Stratus: Well, I was kind of following with Brock but now’s he retired. And Georges St-Pierre is on the shelf, so my interest is kind of on the shelf, but maybe you can fill me in. Who should I be watching? Because those guys were kind of epic.Because with the (WWE) women’s division, maybe I wasn’t necessarily supposed to be the one, but I took advantage of perhaps a hole. Who? Can anyone.. I’ll take it. (laughs) So..

MMA Crossfire: I think the women are actually the ones to watch because they are headlining the Strikeforce pay-per-viewMiesha Tate and Ronda Rousey for the belt. It’s the talk of the MMA world right now.

Trish Stratus: See? That peaks my interest.

MMA Crossfire: It’s the biggest match since Gina Carano – Cyborg who recently released her movie Haywire. I think they’ve been looking at you.

Trish Stratus: Who is? Who’s looking at me?

MMA Crossfire: The women in MMA. I think they’ve been looking at you and how you did your thing and taking what’s good and useful because all eyes are on them now.

Trish Stratus: Well I feel like we did a little sneak attack. We found our opening and our chance so we were like “All eyes are on us, so now we’re gonna grab your attention and make you demand to see us next time.” But that’s great to see and that makes me interested, I’m going to tune in. And Gina Carano you mentioned; I haven’t seen her film – but I’m really excited to see it. I’ve always felt watching female action stars, there was a bit of believability that was lacking. So now that I know that Gina Carano did her film, I know I did my film, and people are raving about our fight scenes because I do believe we know what’s its like to be punched in the face. We do bring this other element. It’s like Jean-Claude Van Damne’s fight scenes, or Jackie Chan. There’s something about being a real fighter and martial artist or something that brings something different to it. So I’m really thrilled that Gina’s been well-received in her movie and performance and hopefully we’re out there representing the women.

OTTAWA — Sixteen days before New Democrats elect a new leader, Thomas Mulcair remains the candidate with the most momentum, according to the latest campaign contributions submitted to Elections Canada.

In the third week before the vote, Mulcair reported getting another $20,612 from 148 contributors.

Peggy Nash trailed just behind him with $17,564, from 135 contributors, while Nathan Cullen came in third with $12,280 from 152 contributors.

Meanwhile, Brian Topp, a former party strategist who at the start of the campaign was considered a shoo in, raised just $9,904 from 58 contributors three weeks before convention.

Paul Dewar also took a fundraising dive in week three, raising just $7,475 from 41 contributors.

Nova Scotia businessman Martin Singh had nothing new to report, while Niki Ashton’s contributions have yet to be posted on the Elections Canada website.

So far, Mulcair has raised the most money overall at $226,612. Topp remains in second place with $192,904 and Nash edged out Dewar to resume the No. 3 spot having raised a total of $157,013.

Dewar’s contributions now stand at $151,475, while Cullen’s campaign has generated $141,835.

Singh still has the largest number of contributors — 6,106 — though the majority are anonymous having donated less than $20.

It should also be noted that individuals may contribute to multiple campaigns more than once.

Mulcair has the second largest number of contributors with 1,495, followed by Topp with 1,042, Cullen with 1,275, Nash with 862 and Dewar with 823.

A search of individual donations turned up a few interesting names.

Jack Layton’s mother Doris indicated last month that she’d be supporting Topp, but records show a Doris Layton contributed $400 to both Topp and Nash’s campaigns.

It also appears Brad Lavigne, principal secretary to the leader of the official Opposition and one of Layton’s close confidants, has contributed $1,000 to the Topp campaign.

Steven Staples, president of the left-leaning Rideau Institute, contributed $50 to Nash’s campaign, $50 to Cullen’s campaign and $320 in two separate contributions to Dewar’s campaign.

Staples said he’s impressed by a number of the candidates but that Dewar is a friend and his MP.

While advance polling has already started, New Democrats will meet in Toronto on March 24 for the big vote.

Sweeping Tory plans are breathtaking in scope

In a sharp break from their first two mandates, the Harper Conservatives are preparing to unveil a budget that is revolutionary rather than evolutionary, one that will introduce sweeping structural changes in key areas of federal policy. Politically, from the government’s standpoint, that won’t happen a moment too soon — even if the budget provokes great controversy, which it most certainly will.

Whether in trade, immigration, retirement benefits, resource development, innovation or fiscal policy, Conservative insiders say, the years of plodding, minority-era “incrementalism” are over. Indeed, there’s a sense within Conservative ranks that their moment of truth, a chance to distinguish themselves from the other parties in stark terms and establish a lasting legacy, has arrived.

“Everybody’s going to be busy for a long time reporting about it,” said one insider, speaking of the coming budget, to be handed down by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on March 29.

The subtext: Unless the robocalls scandal mutates like a super flu into something as-yet-unseen — specifically, unless evidence emerges that the Conservative Party or its national campaign knew about or participated in electoral fraud, something the prime minister and campaign chair Guy Giorno have categorically denied — it may soon be knocked off front pages by more wrenching debates.

Government sources characterize the coming shift as moving from day-to-day governing, extracting successes wherever possible, to making fundamental changes that correct big, underlying problems in the economy, or open up new opportunities in broad areas, such as resource development or trade. In a sense the Tories are adopting something closer to the style of earlier Conservative governments, such as the Brian Mulroney regimes that introduced North American free trade: Go big or go home.

These changes, and the strategy underlying them, were first flagged by the prime minister in his “OAS shocker” speech in Davos, Switzerland, in January. At the time most attention focused on Stephen Harper’s revelation that the government was considering a fundamental overhaul of retirement benefits, in order to make them sustainable long-term, despite the aging baby boom. That might even include a rise in the age of eligibility for Old Age Security from 65 to 67, Harper indicated.

The Liberals and New Democrats, too predictably, immediately cast this as an attempt by the harshly cold, callous Conservatives to seize income from silver-haired widows and hand it over to weapons manufacturers. That debate, callow as it was, was swept aside by the backlash over Bill C-30, the online access bill, then Vikileaks and then robocalls, which continues to dominate political discussion in Ottawa.

What’s interesting about the government’s intentions now, heading into the budget, is how determined the Conservatives are to press ahead with a full suite of significant reform, controversies be damned — and how far the plan extends beyond the OAS system. The change envisioned is huge.

For starters, the age of eligibility for OAS will indeed rise from the current 65 to 67 (though in grandfathered fashion, so that only those younger than 50 or so now will be affected), sources confirm. Beyond that, immigration, resource development, research and innovation and trade are also being overhauled, all while the government moves more aggressively than previously signalled to balance the books. (The Finance department has said budget cuts will be in a range between $4 billion and $8 billion. As I reported here last week, the overwhelming majority of Tory ministers and MPs are pushing hard for cuts at the very upper end of that range, because they want to campaign in 2015 on a balanced budget.)

The coming reforms in immigration, resources and research were flagged this week with policy speeches by ministers in each of those departments — Jason Kenney, Joe Oliver and Gary Goodyear, respectively. In all three cases the unifying thread is to make policy much more responsive to the requirements of the economy.

In immigration the plan is, to a greater extent than ever before, to match the 250,000-plus annual newcomers to Canada with the needs of Canadian employers. In resource management, the government wants to streamline approvals and accelerate pipeline construction, including Keystone and Northern Gateway, to end the “landlocked” discount on Canadian oil. The Tories intend to overhaul the National Research Council, in order to ensure taxpayer-funded research is much more commercially viable. And they plan to finalize free trade agreements with India and the European Union, before the end of this mandate.

Each piece of the puzzle is intriguing. Taken in its entirety, it is breathtaking. It marks a big change in direction, both for the Harper government and for Canada. Will the ensuing debate prove important enough to push the opposition, and the government, past the daily cut-and-thrust of charge and counter-charge, over robocalls? My guess is yes. Small wonder the anticipation, on the government side, is building.

Toronto Life Names Top 10 New Restos

Since opening in April 2011, the wine card at Barque Smokehouse has been in my charge. Weighed favourably towards VINTAGES releases, the list makes friends with and flatters the meats smoked ’round the clock. The wine program is unique to this city; affordable, accessible and stamped by a carbonic footprint in the sand. Wine outsells both beer and spirits and 15 choices are available by the glass at $10 or less. The same operose research afforded tasting and writing goes into picking wines from the LCBO and through some of our most assiduous and industrious agencies; Barrel Select, Halpern, Lifford, Liquid Art, Profile, Stem, 25Brix and Woodman.

The cover story for yesterday’s release of the April 2012 Issue is “Where to eat Now, Toronto’s Best New Retaurants.” Toronto Life has published this cutting top ten list with Barque listed at number six. Good on you David, Jon and crew. These boys are in, and in for good, so it’s no surprise they are going the whole hog. Not bad to be gracing a list inhabited by Yours Truly, Acadia, Aria, Keriwa, Ortolan, F’amelia, Modus, Volos and Mideastro. Here three deep reds available in the here and now on Barque’s wine list.

Pietro Marini Malbec 2008 (269045, $13.95) of alpine altitude up Cafayate way searches low and high for that synaesthetic middle ground. A no nose start, awakens, naps and rises again. Notes of smoked allspice, juniper and blueberries come and go. Flavours are faint at first, develop with time, end abruptly, then return and linger. Intriguing and certainly not like your mother’s Mendozan Malbec. It’s “got values but I don’t know how or why.” 87

Kenwood Jack London Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 (944843, $34.95) alights with its prominent, perfumed proboscis. A Katherine Hepburn nose in fact, classy, confident, twitching, pretty. Swirl a second time and Texas tea laced cassis persists, with a hint of solder. A multi-coloured and peppered berry interchange tongue lashes the inner cheeks then settles in for a long haul chopper journey. A balanced attack both on ground and in air. Dreamt about under a bed of California Stars. Easy rider. 92

Feds pay $20,000 for oilpatch brochures, printing some in USA and others in United Kingdom

OTTAWA-The federal government has spent over $20,000 on brochures promoting the oilsands in the United States and Europe since 2009 as part of a sophisticated lobbying and marketing campaign to fight foreign climate change policies, according to figures released this week by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

The brochures were all printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper, but not all were actually printed in Canada. A small portion of those destined for U.S. decision-makers were printed south of the Canadian border, while brochures distributed in Europe were printed in the United Kingdom to save on delivery costs.

In total, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government spent $9,956 on brochures distributed in Europe and $10,455 on brochures distributed in the United States, a department spokeswoman said.

The government has argued that it will “continue to promote Canada’s oilsands as they are key to Canada’s economic prosperity and energy security.”

Federal bureaucrats have not yet been able to produce any talking points in response to questions about how promoting the resource abroad would help boost Canada’s energy security at home.

However, the government has released a vast collection of records, in response to a request under federal access to information laws, detailing its sophisticated plan to lobby foreign governments to delay climate change legislation by attempting to cast doubts about the science behind the environmental policies.

The strategy is similar to one developed a few years ago by public relations firm Apco Worldwide in support of an anti-Kyoto Protocol campaign in Canada on behalf of an oil and gas industry-funded group of skeptics that attempted to cast doubt about peer-reviewed scientific evidence showing that human activity is causing global warming observed in recent decades.

Former U.S. congressman Anthony Moffett said the Canadian government’s current activities clash with its historic reputation in leading the U.S. to adopt historic policies and legislation to fight air pollution, acid rain and emissions of ozone-depleting substances.

“It wasn’t only that we were looking north. We were looking up to Canada because we wanted to be like Canada, on every one of those historic pieces of legislation, we had help from the Canadian government from one form or another.”

“In the Reagan years, when the president was unravelling much of what we had done, we could look to the Canadian government to express its opposition,” Moffett said.

“In the acid rain battle, we had no greater ally than the Canadian government. So I never dreamed, now at the age of 67, that I’d be on a call, following up a very important report, that not only shows Canada not helping on those things, but shows the Canadian government – not its people its government – having gone over to the other side – the dirty side.”

“We wanted to be so much like Canada, we pretty much hoped that our government could emulate Canada and now we find the Canadian government totally on the other side. It’s as though the government has been taken hostage by the most reactionary anti-environmental forces in Canada which has now made a marriage between those reactionary anti-environmental forces with our anti-environment forces.”

He said the Canadian government has also become a partner with groups in the U.S. that are pushing for the approval of a major pipeline expansion project, TransCanada Corporation’s Keystone XL.

But he said these groups also have a more nefarious goal.

“They’re main goal is to get rid of President Barack Obama and make sure that he doesn’t get re-elected,” said Moffett.

“They want this election to be a referendum, our reactionary forces, on President Obama and, in no small part, on his energy and environmental policy, and they want it to be a referendum on Keystone.

“So whether it’s intentional or not, the Canadian government at its highest levels has become part of the anti-Obama campaign. There’s no getting around it. They are now in bed with the most virulent, poisonous, anti-Obama forces, across the United States.”

Who is Joseph Kony? The International Criminal Court in 2005 issued an arrest warrant for Kony, charging him with 12 counts of crimes against humanity and 21 counts of war. For 26 years, Kony helped build the LRA with child soldiers, sexual enslavement and the murder of civilians. His soldiers have been forced out of Uganda and now operate in southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

But not everyone is lauding the efforts of the Western world in training its spotlight on Kony. Some have criticized the video for its “Western arrogance to dangerous oversimplification,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“The war is much more complex than just one man called Joseph Kony,” Ugandan journalist Rosebell Kagumire argued in a YouTube video, describing the Invisible Children video as the work of “an outsider trying to be a hero, rescuing African children.”

Calling much of the negative publicity misleading, Invisible Children says its campaign advocates “for the arrest of Joseph Kony so that he can be tried by the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a precedent for future war criminals.”

Grant Oyston, a sociology and political science student at Acadia University in Nova Scotia criticized #Kony2012 on his blog. Here’s some of what he says:

Invisible Children has been condemned time and time again. As a registered not-for-profit, its finances are public. Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 31% went to their charity program (page 6)*. This is far from ideal, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they haven’t had their finances externally audited. But it goes way deeper than that.

The group is in favour of direct military intervention, and their money funds the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces … Both the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army are riddled with accusations of rape and looting, but Invisible Children defends them, arguing that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”, although Kony is no longer active in Uganda and hasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission.

Is awareness good? Yes. But these problems are highly complex, not one-dimensional and, frankly, aren’t of the nature that can be solved by postering, film-making and changing your Facebook profile picture, as hard as that is to swallow. Giving your money and public support to Invisible Children so they can spend it on funding ill-advised violent intervention and movie #12 isn’t helping. Do I have a better answer? No, I don’t, but that doesn’t mean that you should support KONY 2012 just because it’s something. Something isn’t always better than nothing. Sometimes it’s worse.

— Prof. Joanna Quinn, director of Western University’s Africa Institute in London, Ont., says the campaign is correct in singling out Kony.

“If what they’re talking about is finally carrying out the arrest warrant and capturing Joseph Kony, then I don’t disagree,” she said. “Going after Kony is not a bad thing.”

Celebrity tweeters aren’t the only ones after Kony. According to the USA Today, “the Obama administration sent 100 special operations troops in October to work with Ugandan forces to root out Kony and his band of fighters. Another group of U.S. forces is working with the Congo and other neighboring countries to catch Kony.”

Also participating was Maureen Wright, the Canada public relations manager for visitflorida.com. I was also on the chat, but don’t consider myself a Florida expert as those two clearly are. It’s been ages since I’ve been to Florida and am considering a return this coming November so I was interested to hear what Len and Maureen had to say as were the readers who dropped in to fire questions at them.

I was interested to see several people logging on to praise Len and the trip plans he offers to travellers who want to visit Disney sites. It was obvious from the detailed answers he gave to all that he was on top of all things related to the Magic Kingdom.

Len had some solid advice which may be obvious to Florida vacation veterans, but not to first-timers.

If you’re going to Disneyworld, he said, staying onsite is best and get to the parks early as they open at 8 a.m. Have a detailed plan of the things you want to see and do. Be sure to hit the popular attractions early as they get busy and wear some sensible shoes because you’re going to do a lot of walking, Len said.

There was also some loving from readers on Universal Studios theme parks so the conversation wasn’t all about Disney.

Maureen noted that Fort Lauderdale is actually the busiest destination for Canadians, mostly coming from Toronto. Other popular destinations were Orlando, Miami, the Gold Coast and places like Tampa-St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Sarasota, Fort Myers and Naples and, of course, the Keys.

Maureen also offered up some links to websites that offered deals and special offers to Canadians visiting the state.

It might be too late to head down for March Break this year, but if you can, Florida sounds like it’s as popular as ever and with its many attractions, it’s easy to see why.

Mourinho, widely rumoured to be departing Real Madrid after this season for an English club such as Tottenham Hotspur or Chelsea (though he has denied any movement back to Chelsea), is pulling down a salary of 10 million Euros ($13.1 million USD) a year.

It’s easy to see why Mourinho would command such a salary. He’s one of the most successful coaches in world football, having coached Porto and Inter Milan to Champions League titles in 2004 and 2010, respectively. He coached Chelsea to two Premier League titles, Inter Milan to two Serie A titles and is now on track to coach Real Madrid to the top of what is currently the best league in world football – all this despite being unable to beat FC Barcelona either in league or tournament play.

Tied for second among the best-paid coaches are Barcelona’s Pep Guardiola and Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala‘s Guus Hiddink, at 7.5 million Euros ($9.8 million USD) each. Guardiola is finishing out the last year of his contract and speculation has it that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is interested in bringing him to his club. A move like that, entirely unsubstantiated in the public record, could probably vault him to the top the list.

Next down the list is Manchester City coach Roberto Mancini, at 6 million Euros ($7.9 million USD) per season, followed by Paris Saint-Germain coach Carlo Ancelotti with 5.9 million Euros ($7.7 million USD) and Bayern Munich’s Jupp Heynckes at 5 million Euros ($6.6 million USD).

Is it time for CBC's Don Cherry to leave Coach's Corner?

The original good Canadian kid himself has been the subject of lots of talk lately, suggesting the CBC’s most listened to talking head might want to think about retirement.

The latest kerfuffle happened with Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke and Don Cherry trading barbs over Cherry’s xenophobic suggestion that the Leafs would be much better if only they had a bunch of Ontario-born players on the roster.

Of course, if Steven Stamkos, Rick Nash and Jason Spezza were to magically appear on the Buds’ roster, things would be much nicer for Blue and White fans. But, magic is not real so we know none of these super studs will be donning the Maple Leaf anytime soon.

Cherry’s contention that good hockey players only come out of Ontario is ludicrous. Bobby Orr and Doug Gilmour are hall of famers but there are many more hockey factories these days. The year is 2012 Don, not 1912!

The Star’s Rosie DiManno recently said that Cherry and Burke are both divas and should be appropriately treated that way.

She has a point: if there is anybody else who like to hear the sound of his voice other than Cherry, it is Burke. But Cherry has the regular pulpit and is watched by millions each Saturday night and more often during the two-month grind of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

I don’t think many but the diehard Cherry fans would object. His act is long past the stale stage, and edging into mouldy. Other than his recent diatribes against Ron Wilson and Burke, do you remember a single issue Cherry has raised that has caught some traction (other than the no-touch icing no-brainer) in recent years?

Just last week, Cherry joined Twitter and maybe this is an attempt for him to look relevant in our brave new social media universe.

But it is too little too late. Twitter is not for the faint of heart. If you want to make a difference, you have to work hard and Tweet pithy and relevant comments day after day.

Some of the early comments from @CoachsCornerCBC include reminiscing about 1993 Leafs and the courage of John Wayne!?!

I used to make a special point listening to Cherry on Saturday nights, even when the Leafs were practising their recent brand of suckage. But other than his admirable stand on supporting the troops, it is getting painful to listen to him. He is like the embarrassing uncle you invite to family events, but secretly wish you didn’t have to call him.

It is time to say thanks for the memories Don, but please go home to Kingston.